AT FIRSTGLANCE: Air We Breathe

Local filmmaker Andrew Ari Clibanoff's Air We Breathe shows a lot of heart but offers disappointing results.

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AT FIRSTGLANCE: Air We Breathe

POSTED: Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 4:00 PM

Filed Under: Movies | Film Fest Movie Review

Check this space all week for reviews and coverage of the 2011 FirstGlance Film Festival.

Local filmmaker Andrew Ari Clibanoff's Air We Breathe shows a lot of heart but offers disappointing results. If you can get past audio imperfections like the popping P's and S's, and distracting changes in ambient noise in between camera switches, you're left facing an almost shockingly unoriginal script. The film is a twenty-four-and-a-half-minute indie cliché about a washed up alcoholic writer and a visitor with an unknown agenda. It's like a Hal Hartley joint without the post-modernism, which translates to almost unwatchable.

The acting is actually pretty decent, despite the inexplicable casting. Each of the four actors look to be in their mid-20s, which makes it hard to believe the protagonist is a has-been great writer.

This could-be tale of cathartic transcendence needs more narrative. The weight attempted to be hoisted onto these characters in a 24-minute period doesn't have nearly enough fuel to ignite a substantial dramatic experience. Nor does the dialogue offer it's modestly talented (if distractingly young) actors a chance to make any memorable impressions with their material. I hope they keep at it because Air We Breathe shows a lot of ambition. But the end product might as well be a long film trailer designed to reel you in by not showing you any of the interesting parts.

CITY PAPER GRADE: D

Sat., Oct. 15, 8 p.m., $10, screens with Ring Theory, Luz, and Falling Overnight, Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th St., firstglancefilms.com/philadelphia.

(ryan.carey@citypaper.net) (@slackerDIYtoday)

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